Analyzed in the article are similarities and distinctions between the former Soviet and today’s Russian political systems, as well as the state of modern Russian politics and the prospects of its further evolution. The author makes the main accent in his study on juxtaposing the two main models of political relations in the USSR and in Russia, which, from his point of view, are pluralism and corporatism. In his conclusions the author suggests that, as distinct from the Soviet corporate-pluralistic model of the 1970s to the 1980s, today’s Russian model has a very substantial potential of development in the direction of new corporatism and of political pluralism of full value.